Decorating for Christmas

Here's a couple pictures of our tree decorating last week. We thought it was going to be a nightmare with two extra pairs of grabby toddler hands, but it actually turned out to be rather fun.

I wish I would have brought my camera to the Christmas tree lot, but I forgot it. This wasn't just a Christmas tree lot - no sir. It was Christmas fantasy land! My kids were particularly drawn to the carousel ride and the two live reindeer. Mary Alice was keenest on the reindeer and didn't give a hoot about the Christmas tree, though. It broke her heart to actually leave those reindeer to bring the tree home.

But once we got home, she got into the decorating spirit.


And this little guy (we call him Mama's little cheeser... so much adorableness!) was really well behaved with the tree. He did some minor redecorating for us, but overall, he was just thrilled to watch it all go up. (This is not to say that this behavior has stayed the same since. The poor tree looks vandalized from the three foot mark down. But we take things in baby steps around here.)


And this young man right here was my most excellent helper. I can't believe what a difference even one year makes. Last year, the tree wasn't all that interesting. But this year not only was it interesting - he actually understood the idea of putting ornaments on with an even spatial pattern. It seems that OCD children and OCD parents work well together when their OCDs are the same!


And when not measuring out the spatial distance of the ornaments, he kept a close eye on the fire (and the baby's interest in the fire, as well.) What a guy!




And here is our final baby-proofed (okay... not baby-PROOFED, but rather baby-DELAYED) tree. (Complete with Thomas' Geo-track train underneath.) Merry Christmas everyone!